Duelists of the Stars
by Yami-Yugi3
Summary: [AU] [Thanks Meli for beta reading this fic for me! ] Earth died five years ago, it natural resources are gone, so it could not support life anymore. What was left of the human population left Earth in many ships and spread out through many galaxies. So
1. What was now Lost now as Found

Disclaimer: All Yu-Gi-Oh characters belong to Kazuki Takahashi. Any made up characters belong to me. This fic has Yaoi; you have been warned.

Duelists of the Stars  
by Yami-Yugi

Chapter 1 - What was now Lost now as Found

Earth died five years ago, it natural resources are gone, so it could not support life anymore. What was left of the human population left Earth in many ships and spread out through many galaxies. Some created colonies in space, while others settled on other planets. Some either got lost or died against hostile aliens. Colonies and settlement planets came together to built message war ships and powerful mechs to help fight many aliens that wanted to kill the remaining living humans. Our story tells the journey of one such ship and her crew; manly the story of one crew member in particular...

- - -

Yugi Mutou sighed as he lay awake in his bed in his quarters as the great war ship, the Lunar Moonlight, coasted through deep space. There was no fighting at the time so many of the ship's crew members had some time to rest and sleep while there was no fighting to be done. But sadly Yugi could not sleep. His mind was wandering, like it always did. He rolled over to his side and stared at an old photograph that sat there on the night stand. It was a picture of him in the arms of his dark skinned lover when Earth was still alive. Yugi started to tear up. "Atemu...Other Me..." he whispered softly as his mind drifted back to the sad day when Earth was dying, the day he and his lover got separated during the escape to space...

He remember that day, it was chaos, people running frantically trying to get into the escaping ships. He and his love lagged behind cause his love was sick, and he didn't want his love to get worse if they hurried. "Yuge! Pharaoh! Come on!" a friend of theirs shouted at a waiting ship.

"Sorry," the pilot of the escape ship said as they finally came to the ship "I only have room for one more."

Yugi felt a hand on his shoulder. "J-Joey, take Yugi..." he heard his love spoke weakly.

Yugi looked at his lover in shock. "B-But Atemu... I can't leave you, not when you're sick like this." he had said as he started to cry.

"I-I'll be okay...Aibou... J-Joey will watch over you..." his lover said as he dried his eyes.

"B-But..."

"J-Joey, take good watch over Yugi..."

"Okay Pharaoh, I will I promise ya." Yugi heard his friend said.

"B-But..." Yugi started to protest again.

"I-I promise, Aibou... W-When this is all over we'll find each other again..." his love said.

"B-But..."

"I can't wait all day." the pilot said "We're leaving now."

Yugi felt his friend pull him into the ship, his love disappearing into the crowd. "ATEMU!" he screamed in vain as he was pulled inside and the ship took off. And Yugi never saw or heard from his love afterwards...

"Atemu..." Yugi whispered as he fell asleep crying.

- - -

Suddenly, Yugi was awaken by alarms, but they weren't alarms of battle though, these were different. Yugi got up anyway, threw on his uniform, and raced to the ship's huge bridge. "Kaiba! What's going on!" he asked the captain of the war ship, one Seto Kaiba.

"Look." Seto said with his arms cross as he stared out into space. Yugi looked and saw a huge graveyard of destroyed escape ships, long since been destroyed by the aliens.

"When did this happen?" he asked, a bit worriedly.

"Long ago it seems." said Seto "About three years ago it looks like it, or maybe the whole five."

"Hey Seto, I'm getting something, it seems like a distress beacon from an escape pod." said Joey Wheeler from one of the consoles.

"Put it up on screen, Puppy." Joey blushed and press a button. The huge screen turned on to a close up picture of a lone escape pod floating among the near by debris.

"You think anyone is still alive in there?" asked Tristan Taylor from his console.

"Who knows." said Seto "I'm pretty amazed that it's still sending a signal for this long. Either it's malfunctioning, or it's a miracle that it's life support systems are still functional."

"What are we going to do?" asked Yugi.

"We're going to retrieve it." said Seto "Just in case there's a slightest chance someone is still alive in there."

- - -

It wasn't long until the pod was retrieved and brought on board. Many crew members gathered around it until Seto stepped in to inspect it. "Well Kaiba?" Yugi asked.

"That's interesting," Seto said "The life support system is still running." Seto press a button where it opened the special blast shielding that protected the glass cover.

The crew looked shocked. Under the glass cover laid a tan man; unconscious, pale, sweating greatly, and breathing very weakly and painfully. The man had spiky tri-color hair. Yugi was the most shocked and surprised as he placed his hands on the glass cover, starting to cry. "I-It's the Pharaoh..." Joey said in shock and surprise as well.

Yugi looked towards Seto. "Can you open it?" he asked, very worried.

Seto shock his head. "I could but I don't want to risk it. If I do it might kill him. The life support system might be the only thing keeping him alive." he said a bit sadly.

"But we got to do something!" Yugi shouted. I can't lose him again... Seto sighed, and called the infirmary. They were soon there with a special stretcher will a full life support system on board.

"Is it turned on?" Seto asked.

"Yes Sir." one of the infirmary doctors said.

"Then get it ready." said Seto. He bend down, pressing more buttons. When the lid slowly open with a hiss, the tan man started to breath very shallowly, like almost gasping for air. Yugi was very worried as Seto lifted the man gently up into his arms. Yugi quickly felt the man's forehead and Yugi started to cry harder as Seto gently placed the man into the stretcher, and with its life support turned on, the man's breathing went back to where it was before.

He got worse these last five years... Yugi thought worriedly.

As the infirmary doctors started to push the stretcher back to the infirmary, Seto looked at Yugi. "You may go with them, Yugi." he said.

"Really Kaiba?" Yugi asked with a sniffle. Seto nodded. "Thanks." With that Yugi raced off to catch up.

- - -

Once in the infirmary, the doctors remove the man from the stretcher and placed him in a special bed. Like the stretcher, it had a life support system. Once that was done, Yugi quickly sat next to the man's bedside. "It seems you know him, Major." one doctor asked him. Yugi nodded slowly. "Then you know what's wrong with him?"

Yugi nodded again. "Before we were separated during the escape," Yugi started "he was sick, but not as sick as he is now."

"I see. Thank you Major." With that they started to work.

"So, you can help him?" Yugi asked worriedly.

The doctors nodded. "It's going to take a long time, but we can save him."

"Thank you." Yugi said "This means so much to me."

- - -

Yugi sat next to his love's bedside for an hour until Joey came in. "How's he doing, Yuge?" he asked worriedly.

"He's still out of it." Yugi said "He has a pretty bad fever."

"Oh..."

"Is there something else, Joey?"

"Oh yeah, Seto wants ya to see him at the bridge."

"But I can't leave Atemu."

"Don't worry Yuge, Seto sent me to take over for awhile."

"Okay..." Yugi took one last look at his very ill love before heading to the bridge.

- - -

"You wanted to see me, Kaiba?" Yugi asked when he arrived.

Seto nodded. "Yes, but don't worry it won't take long." he said.

"Okay, so what is it?" Yugi asked.

"Well we found out which ship the escape pod came from." said Seto "So I just sent Mokuba out to find the ship and get a copy of the ship's log. To see when the ship was destroyed and how long he was really out there."

"You sure it's safe to have your brother out there?"

Seto nodded. "Mokuba can take care of it as long as there is no threat to him. He's been doing this for two years."

"I know..."

Seto smirked. "Don't worry." he said.

"Big brother, come in," a now older Mokuba Kaiba voice came through the familiar com-link.

"I'm here Mokuba." Seto replied "You found the ship?"

"Yeah I just did. It was pretty far from the coordinates where the pod was. I'm just about to head inside."

"Remember to put your mech somewhere so it won't float out into space and you get stuck there."

"-laughs- I know what to do brother. I'm not a ten year old boy anymore."

"I know. Contact me when you find the ship's log and started copying it."

"Will do, Mokuba out."

Seto looked over at Yugi. "You can go back to him." he said "I'll contact you when Mokuba comes back."

"Okay Kaiba." said Yugi as he was about to leave.

"Yugi," Seto stopped him "Take care of him. I would hate it if we lost him."

Yugi nodded. "I will, Kaiba." he said and left to head back to the infirmary.


	2. I'm Glad You're Back

Disclaimer: All Yu-Gi-Oh characters belong to Kazuki Takahashi. Any made up characters belong to me. This fic has Yaoi; you have been warned.

Duelists of the Stars  
by Yami-Yugi

Chapter 2 - I'm Glad You're Back

Yugi went back to Atemu's bedside, gently stroking the tri-color hair. A couple of more hours had pass until Yugi heard a weak moan and eyes slowly open very weakly. Yugi started to cry happily as those dull sickly crimson eyes looked into his. "A-Aibou...?" a baritone voice weakly spoke.

Yugi nodded slowly, still crying happily. "Yes..." he said gently as he ran his fingers through Atemu's hair "It's me, Atemu..."

Atemu slowly and weakly reached for Yugi. Yugi gently took a hold of his lover's hand, as a small weak smile appeared on the ex-pharaoh's face. "I-I...p-promised...w-we...w-would...f-find...e-each other..."

Yugi nodded as he caress the tan hand. "Yes..." he said with a smile "I'm glad you're back... Yami-chan..."

"S-So...a-am...I-I...A-Aibou..."

At that time the door opened and Seto walked inside. He stopped shock for a bit, but soon a smirk appeared. "Well, look. What do we have here? Someone is finally awake, we where all getting worried about you, Pharaoh." he said. Atemu just smirked weakly back. "Yugi, can I talk to you alone again?" Yugi nodded but Atemu was confused. "Don't worry. He won't be gone long." Seto reassured him.

Yugi gently gave Atemu a kiss on the check. "I'll be right back, Yami-chan." he said gently.

Atemu nodded weakly. "D-Don't...b-be...t-too...l-long...A-Aibou..."

Yugi smiled, running his fingers through his hair once more before leaving the room with Seto. "Well?" Yugi asked once they were in the hall "What did you and Mokuba find out?"

"You won't believe this, but the Pharaoh had been floating out there for four and a half years." said Seto.

Yugi looked shocked. "But how did he survive that long?"  
"The escape pod must had been set especially for him," said Seto "I think the ship's crew must have had it ready just in case. Sadly he's the only survivor and the only one that was in such bad shape."

"So, now that do we do now?"

Before Seto could say anything, alarms suddenly came on. Seto went to his com-link. "Puppy, want's going on?"

"It's them. They some how tracked us," Joey's voice replied worriedly.

"Okay, I'll be right there," Seto said then turned to Yugi "Yugi, stay with the Pharaoh, okay?"

Yugi nodded. "Okay Kaiba." he said. Seto nodded and hurried off to the bridge.

When Yugi came back into the room, Atemu was looking at Yugi a bit confused. "A-Aibou...? W-What's going on?" he asked him.

Yugi sat down next to him, taking Atemu's hand in his. "It's a long story Atemu." he said "I'll explain it to you later."

- - -

Many weeks later, Atemu was soon released from the infirmary. Yugi walked down the hall with him, showing his love around the huge battle ship. "So..." Atemu started "In stead of fighting them, how about helping each other?"

Yugi sighed. "It's not all that simple, Atemu," he said "They hate us too much."

"But I still don't understand, Aibou."

"I know, it's hard for you to truly understand..."

"What about us make them hate us?"

"We're not really sure."

'Someone should ask them."

Yugi sighed again. "Again it's not that easy, Atemu."

"Well someone SHOULD try."

"If someone can prove me wrong then I might change my mind about them." Crimson eyes looked towards him and a smirk appeared on the ex-pharaoh's face.

"Is that a challenge, Aibou?"

Yugi looked shocked. "I didn't mean you! You could get killed out there and I don't want to lose you again!"

"Okay I get the hint, Aibou." Atemu said with a laugh.

"I'm not trying to be funny, Atemu." Yugi said looking seriously at him.

"If that what you want, Aibou."

Yugi sighed. "I give up..." Atemu just smirked as the two arrived in the hanger bay.

"Hey Major Mutou!" one of the engineers working on a mech that was in the shape of a Dark Magician yelled. "You sure you want your Mech with another cock pit?"

Atemu looked confused, but Yugi nodded. "Yeah, is there something wrong?" he asked them.

"Well... We have to redo the chest area just to make room for the other one. This Mech was only supposed to house one fighter pilot."

Atemu cocked his head in confusion. "Just make it work." Yugi said.

"Okay if you say so Major."

"Aibou, what did you mean by another cock pit?" Atemu asked confused.

Yugi smiled at him. "It's for you." he said.

Atemu looked surprised, but still a bit confused. "For me? Why?"

Yugi smiled more. "Well the next time we go to battle, you'll come with me." he explained "I'm not going to let you out of my sight again."

"Oh...I see." said Atemu. Yugi smiles and pulled Atemu into a hug.


End file.
